Women Inequality or Empowerment?

Posted in Human Resources Articles, Total Reads: 2954
, Published on 03 June 2012

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“Are you ok??” comes a sweet voice from just above me and a warm hand touches my forehead. And I know that it’s my mom. Ever since my childhood, 5 minutes past my wake up time, she is there to see if I am fine or not. My mother left her job to rear my sisters and me. And I can say that many mothers did that. My sister is an engineer and a post graduate from India’s best college and she did the same when my nephew was born.

Should we call it lack of ambition? Or just a stupid fad to rear children on their own to convince their motherly souls that their child is well looked after? So, what happens when we hear names like Indira Gandhi, Madonna or IndraNooyi? Or what happens when our mothers hear these names? We can say that their affection for their children always overpowers one of the most important issues, which somehow every woman forgets –Inequality.

The whole concept of Inequality starts with a simple phrase: “Ladies first”. Why? The origin of this phrase is nowhere close to its actual usage today. The interpretation of this phrase today shows what the society teaches us. Today, “ladies first” denotes lack of power in women, lesser ability to make themselves heard or simply a way wherein men can tell women that “only if I let you speak, only then you can, else, NO WAY”.

The branches of a common root i.e. Inequality is present across the globe. In addition to some biological inequality which a woman naturally faces, there are a lot of societal inequalities which carries forward the biological inadequacies. So, we can categorize Women Inequality into two parts: 1) Natural Gender Inequality 2) Societal Gender Inequality

Natural Gender Inequality: The major natural or biological inequality stands in the brain size itself, wherein male brain weighs 4% more than a female’s. Due to this reason only (i.e. the compact packing of neurons in the brain) women age faster i.e. getting wrinkles and feeling old, than men do. Women also feel pain more intensely than men because women have double the number of nerve fibres per square centimeter in comparison to men (i.e. 34 in women & 17 in men). These biological differences surely puts female to be in the “more sensitive”domain, but not to an extent that they face the wrath of being lower to men.

Societal Gender Inequality: From forbidding them from driving in Saudi Arabia to the different clothing requirements by Muslims, things are not at all rosy. From low access to education, fighting for child custody after divorce to being victims of violence, societies across the globe are doing all what they can to push women as low as possible.China, a country with one of the highest growth rate and a threat to even USA, shows the worst sex ratio. China’s one child policy has fueled cases of abortion, neglect, abandonment etc. which has led to a dismal figure of 114 males per 100 females. Even in India the ratio favours males with a ratio of 950 females to every 1000 males and in some regions the number is as low as 300.

It is saddening. Yes it is. But why do we forget the things in which women are better than men? So, if I don’t mention these things here, then I would also be termed as a follower of inequality.

A reason to rejoice: Surveys, Studies, experiments and a lot of scientific research has given the world some facts which are as important to be aware of as the sex ratio.

In Saudi Arabia, women are not allowed to drive, but a study states that they survive car accidents more than men. A study has shown that men are 77% more likely to die in car accidents than women and this gives women a scope to enjoy the wrinkles wherein men die before they actually avail the opportunity of looking younger at old age. In addition, many studies state that women live longer pertaining mainly to healthier life practices. This also stems from the fact that men face higher on-the-job deaths. The bureau of labour statistics is coherent with the studies by giving figures that 80% of all those who lost their jobs due to recession after 2007 are MEN.

Women are also known to graduate more often. In contrast, men on an average take 5 years to complete graduation. Even the pass percentage in the CBSE exam has been favoring females for a long time now. No wonder it leads to unhealthy practices in men i.e. smoking, drinking, eating junk food etc. Women are more towards healthy eating and end up with a better and a stronger immune system than men. With the world’s population over 100years of age, 85% of them are women.

So, it sums it up. Whatever natural or societal inequalities may prevail in the world, women have turned out to be stronger and better. From being better managers in this economy specially to being better investors with returns at 18% compared to 11% for male investors, females are outperforming males in all areas you can think of.

“I don’t think you can make it up for the 1st class today” my mom smiled and told me. And I realized the same thing rushing to the bathroom to get ready. My phone suddenly made a loud noise and there was a message from a girl who is the class topper. The sms read,” I don’t think m’am will let you enter now, you are late, if you want, I can mark your proxy”. With my life running on the efforts of women around me, I don’t mind missing the class. But we can say that their affection and love turns into indifference towards what they have achieved which always overpowers one of the most important issues, which somehow a woman forgets – Empowerment.

And the whole concept of Empowerment starts with a simple phrase: “Ladies are First”.

This article has been authored by Dhruv Bansal from FORE School of Management, New Delhi.